First for Party Wall Surveyors (FPWS) performs Party Wall etc Act services and is regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

All services offered by FPWS are referred to in this agreement as “Party Wall Surveying Services”. Additional terms and conditions relevant to the work you wish us to undertake provide further details. These will be provided to you prior to our acceptance of the instruction and form an integral constituent component of our relationship.

2. PLACES AND HOURS OF BUSINESS:

Our head office is situate at:

116 North Street, Romford, Essex, RM1 1DL

Our normal hours of opening are between 9.00 a.m. and 5.00p.m. Mondays to Fridays. Appointments can be arranged outside opening hours when essential to the interests of the Clients.

3. PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY

In the interests of Clients, the Firm maintains Professional Indemnity Insurance as required by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

4. FEES: Single Survey Activities:

FPWS will confirm our fee to carry out the requested task in writing prior to our instruction.

All fees are exclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT) charged where applicable at the Prevailing rate.

FPWS reserves the right to charge interest on fees unpaid within 28 days of an invoice date. A rate of 4% above Barclays Bank plc lending rate will apply calculated on a day-to-day basis as from the date of the invoice until the date of payment.

All monies paid in advance for Survey Activities are not covered by the RICS client money protection scheme. In the event that FPWS do not carry out a Party Wall Award as instructed, you will be entitled to reimbursement.

5. FEES: Case Work - works likely to take more than a single inspection or report.

Unless we have agreed another arrangement, normally our fees will be calculated mainly by reference to the time we spend on the matter and this will include meetings, reading and considering letters and documents, writing letters, preparing documents, telephone calls, onsite inspections, appearing in court, travelling and any other time expended on the matter you have instructed us on.

To reflect their amount of experience qualifications etc. different members of the firm charge different rates and you will be informed of the appropriate rates.

Our hourly rates are reviewed periodically. You will be notified of such changes and given the opportunity to discuss such changes with us.

FPWS will confirm the prevailing fee rates and schedules relating to your matter in writing prior to carrying out any works.

If other members of our staff need to spend time to deal specifically with your matter a charge may be made for their time.

Charges may be increased because of special circumstances e.g. the matter is urgent and we have to delay other matters to deal with yours because of the urgency of the case, or at your request we carry out work outside normal hours or the value of the case is large or it is complex.

Where possible in an effort to minimize fees, certain tasks may be delegated to junior staff. These tasks will be monitored by the fee earner concerned.

Uncompleted matters. If a matter is not completed or we cease to act we are entitled to be paid for the work we have carried out on the basis mentioned above.

Depending on the likely length of time that the matter will take we may submit interim accounts during the administration of the matter. We will let you have the final (or only) account when we consider the matter concluded.

Other Matters. Upon receipt of your instruction to act we will require you to pay money in advance in respect of our fees and or agreed disbursements which we will account for. If a matter may take some time or involve us in a lot of work we will send you monthly interim accounts for work carried out to date. If you do not pay money requested in advance or an interim account within a reasonable time we may decline to act for you any more in which case we will let you have a final account for work done to date. If monies are received by us we normally deduct all monies due to us before forwarding the balance to you.

Unpaid Costs. If payment is not made within one month of us sending you a bill we shall be entitled to charge you interest.

If payment is not made we reserve the right to cease acting for you in any matter in which we are instructed and will send you an account in respect of all work carried out to date. In the event of re-instruction we reserve the right to charge additional fees to cover the additional work.

All monies paid in advance for professional fees are not covered by the RICS client money protection scheme.

All fees are exclusive of Value Added Tax (VAT) charged where applicable at the prevailing rate.

All fees, unless otherwise stated are exclusive of disbursements, and will be agreed with you prior to being incurred.

FPWS reserves the right to charge interest on fees unpaid within 28 days of an invoice date. A rate of 4% above Barclays Bank plc lending rate will apply calculated on a day-to-day basis as from the date of the invoice until the date of payment

6. EXTERNAL REVIEW & DATA PROTECTION ACT

We are subject to periodic assessment by Auditors from various bodies, part of which involves the limited inspection of client files. Undertakings are given that Client confidentiality will be upheld in respect of all files so inspected. Unless you inform us in writing to the contrary we will assume that you have no objection to your file being inspected should an Auditor request it.

7. OTHER TERMS OF BUSINESS:

FPWS operate a complaints procedure in accordance with RICS requirements, a copy of the same can be requested or supplied by applying to:

These terms and conditions are deemed to apply, without exception, unless specifically varied in writing by a Partner of FPWS.

8. PAYMENTS TO THIRD PARTIES

FPWS occasionally make payments to introducing agents in the course of our day to day business activities.

9. CONDITIONS AND LIMITATIONS OF WEBSITE

All material included in our web site is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal advice. No user should act or refrain from acting on the information contained in this web site without first verifying the information and obtaining legal and/or professional advice.

FPWS expressly disclaims all liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage occasioned from the use or inability to use this web site whether directly or indirectly resulting from inaccuracies, defects, errors, whether typographical or otherwise, omissions, out of date information or otherwise.

FPWS direct makes no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy of the information contained in this web site.

The user agrees that material downloaded or otherwise accessed through the use of this web site is obtained entirely at the user’s own risk and that the user will be entirely responsible for any resulting damage to software or computer systems and/or any resulting loss of data even if FPWS has been advised of the possibility of such damage.

10. NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT

Except where expressly stated to the contrary the text and graphics and the information contained in this web site is the copyright of FPWS.

11. SURVEYOR'S RIGHT TO SUB-CONTRACT:

FPWS may from time to time engage the services of consultants, specialists and others whom are not directly employed by FPWS. Primarily this will be to augment our own capabilities and as such any person engaged in this will be a full member of the RICS. In the event of such a situation FPWS shall remain fully liable for the due performance of its obligation under these Conditions.

Where FPWS engage the services of third party advisers and other non RICS specialists FPWS will not accept any liability for the performance or negligence whatsoever and howsoever caused.

12. JURISDICTION AND LAW:

This contract is governed by English Law and the parties hereto and hereby submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.